Last Stand
by Dajun - Shinespark
Summary: On a world held by the iron fist of the Overlord, the Doctor and his companions face an old enemy, but they are not as he remembers. Violence is never the answer, but perhaps this will be an exception. But who's really in control here...?
1. Prologue

Author's notes: This is my second Doctor Who fic, but unlike the first one, this features the CURRENT Doctor and his companions. Hope you enjoy it!

**Doctor Who: Last Stand Pt1**

**Prologue**

Death is natural. Death is unavoidable. Death will come.

Such morals were something that would have once been considered too brutal, too inhumane to be taught to children of such age. But such days were over long ago. Carter was one of those kids, someone brought up in a place too dirty, too savage for him to care about the quality of his life. For the last thirty years he had lived with death, running beside it and sometimes even overtaking it. But no matter how much he was used to such things, he still found it difficult to see it in others.

A final, farewell groan confirmed the death of yet another companion Carter held dear. How many has it been, twenty or thirty? He couldn't remember anymore. And as he scanned the hanger around him, he knew that more would follow. Around him, what little medical staff they had left rushed from one side of the building to the other tirelessly, working like machines; but the wounded outnumbered the healthy.

The blast doors behind him sealed with a loud clang, signaling the start of what would soon become an orderly chaos. Somehow, and he had no idea yet how, Carter would have to manage the evacuation of over a thousand people within an hour. Already, the men and women who served under him hurried with their allocated tasks: soldiers helped move the barely alive and technicians did their best to salvage what little equipment they had left and destroyed what they couldn't take with them. Outside he could hear the distant sound of gunfire rattling through the night sky; the perimeter defense will do what they must, but it would only be a matter of time before they fall.

"Move it people, we may only have minutes!" The coarse, harsh voice escaped his throat, a reminder of just how long it has been commanding these people. The knowledge that if he fails tonight, not one of them will live threatened to overwhelm him. But there's a time and a place for a psychotic breakdown.

The junior officer half scrambled towards his commander, his worn out and battered body struggled to force a salute as he gave his rushed report: "They are within range of the secondary defense ring."

Carter froze as he stared at the kid, as though a stern parent trying to make his child tell the truth. "How? How did they get past the primary defense so quickly?"

"They..." The officer swallowed hard and gave a nervous glance at the blast door behind them, suddenly feeling like they were made of paper than reinforced steel, "They bypassed them completely, sir. No one knows how but they're heading straight for us."

Carter silently wiped the sweat from his brow, with more forming immediately. "How long?"

Around them, people slowed down and listened almost subconsciously, desperate for some good news. But they received none. "Ten minutes, maybe less..."

Abruptly, the commotion ceased as the entire population of the hanger paused to contemplate their fate. For what felt like a generation now, Carter has trained his men and women to have no fear and soldier on regardless of the dangers. But they have never before been so near to death with so little they could do to save themselves. For a fraction of a second, even Carter himself considered collapsing into a heap and let someone else take over. Good thing no one noticed that.

"Then we need to leave right now."

As though an unseen switch had been flipped, the still working people simultaneously stepped up the pace; those who were walking were now running, and those who were running were now sprinting. The well oiled machine that Commander Carter has spent so long nurturing was finally living up to their reputation.

But it wasn't enough.

A sudden explosion confirmed the inevitable: the enemy has breached the secondary defense ring. Next line of fire would be them: Ground zero. The only thing that stood between these people and their doom was a layer of blast door. Without even a second's worth of pause, Carter knew what he had to do. With a short click of his fingers, one of his best squads assembled before him. Once it was about six squads, but the survivors of those groups of hardened men and women had since formed into one unit; a testimony to their bloody experiences.

"Alright." Carter announced without even raising his voice, "You all have eyes and ears. Everyone of you must already guessed by now what the situation is, so I won't waste time filling you in. In the next ten minutes, this base will be empty except us. We all know that the others won't even make it out of the complex if we don't halt the enemy right here, right now."

Almost in unison, members of the squad nodded their approval. Some of them gave a last glance at their loved ones being evacuated, but showed no disapproval whatsoever. They all knew this was the only way.

Carter drew in a long breath and turned to the blast doors behind him, as though he could already see their enemy gathering on the other side and preparing to breach. Simultaneously, his men loaded their weapons and took their positions, waiting for the inevitable to come. And right on time, the spark of light from a plasma cutter emitted through the tiny gaps upon the door. The sight triggered an overdrive for the evacuees as they abandoned whatever they carried and ran for their lives. And as Carter knew that the people he had cared for was now safe, he turned to his squad. "Take everything that's left behind and set up fortifications: tables, beds, equipment, anything you can find..."

A series of loud clangs interrupted him as the door finally caved into the pressure, and like the passing of a great beast, it toppled. Burning plasma vapour erupted into the hanger and through the mist, blue lights lit up one by one. A final glance at his squad without fear and Carter gave them the last order they'll ever hear.

"If they want us dead, then we'll make them work for it!"

"Hoorah!"


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Deep within the confines of quite possibly the most secure place in the universe, the girl from Leadworth observed her companions with her arms crossed. In what was technically one night (the night before her wedding, no less), she saw the stuff of legends; creatures and worlds not even the wildest imagination could come up with. And though Amy Pond had long since changed her perspective of the world, some things never seemed to change: the way blokes bicker.

"For the last time, Rory, England did not win the World Cup in sixty-six! Not technically, anyway." The 'man' she has entrusted her life to circled the gleaming center console like a mad child looking for hidden presents. His mad hair and that rediculous bow-tie made her want to laugh even after everything they've been through.

"Oh come on, Doctor, you can't say things like that!" Following closely behind like an unlikely lab assistant was the 'other' man she entrusted her life to. Rory Williams, a man who waited for her for two thousand years, a man who has proved to Amy time and time again that he was so much more than just a nurse who was content with the 'normal life'. The same man who was now arguing with the Doctor about football. "It's like saying the Queen used to be a lap dancer, it's just ridiculous and boardering on treason!"

With a sigh, the Doctor stopped his mad dash around the console, causing Rory to nearly crash into him. As though suddenly very serious, but Amy knew otherwise, the Doctor stared at Rory in the eye, causing the latter to wince somewhat uncomfortably. "You want to know the truth, Rory?" Before he could even answer, the Doctor started 'explaining' at a pace that could only be matched by TV salesmen.

"Long time ago, a planet in the Trident system, Trident Prime, held a population of twenty billion. For years, famine and disease swept over the world until its governments decided to colonise a new planet, namely Earth. Soon afterwards, probes were sent to investigate Earth, where only one made it through the atmosphere without burning up and landed right in the middle of England just days before the World Cup." As he went on, Rory nodded slowly with a look that said 'I have no idea what the hell you're talking about', a sight that made Amy double over as she tried to resist laughing out loud. The Doctor went on, "So due to the particular circumstance and their very limited understanding of humanity, the people of Trident believed that the football is an icon that's worshipped by humans as their deity. So they thought 'perfect' and began their plans, which was to replace one of the footballs with a supercomputer that could manipulate and influence those around it into allowing an alien invasion without any resistance. Unfortunately the computer was faulty, and instead of it influencing the people, the people began to influence _it_. So just after it was dropped into the England team, it started to believe that England must, under any means necessary, win the World Cup. So..." The Doctor stared at Rory again, who by this stage looked as though he was experiencing a mixture of horror and disbelief, before continuing once more. "...A sentient computer, in the shape of a football and absolutely convinced that England must emerge victorious... what do you think happened next?"

"...England...won?" Rory ventured like a little kid answering a maths question in his first day at school.

"You learn quick, Rory!" The Doctor patted the man on the shoulder and went straight back to his mysterious search around the centre console, leaving Rory still stammering in confusion.

Unable to hold it in any longer, Amy finally burst out laughing and wrapped her arms around her husband affectionately, the act of which seemed to calm him down slightly, but only just. "Come on, Rory, you should've known that's what happens when you argue with the Doctor."

Rory sighed and held her close, though he still looked slightly upset, "Yeah but, I love football. I've loved it since I was a kid, and then he comes around and..." He pointed at the Doctor with an accusing finger, who paid no attention whatsoever, "...and ruined it for me..."

"Oh for goodness sake, grow up!" The Doctor moaned as he pulled out a small box from under the console excitedly, "I'm taking you to a planet with a silver ocean and trees that can walk! Can you imagine that, walking trees?"

"Well, I did watch Lord of the Rings the other night..." Rory replied sarcastically, slightly smug for what he considered a decent comeback.

The Doctor sighed again, "Here I am trying to show you the wonders of the universe and all you're concerned with is football. So typical of the English..." Without waiting for a reply, he pulled a lever nearby that caused the normal whirling of the TARDIS to sound even louder as the blue box hurled itself through time and space at an unusually high speed. For a brief moment, the Doctor seemed pleasantly surprised by his ship's sudden vigor, but quickly turned to confusion as the box whirled faster and faster until it became more like a screech. Immediately, both Rory and Amy dropped to the floor as the entire drive room rocked as though a small boat being buffetted in an almighty storm. Before them, the Doctor held on for dear life as the confusion evolved into terror. Somehow the ship was no longer under control.

"Doctor!" Amy yelled before covering her head from a rain of sparks showering the whole room as the interior structure protested at such an velocity that it clearly wasn't designed for, "What's happening?"

"I don't know, maybe it's found something interesting!" The Doctor smiled, trying to look brave despite the whole ship seemingly desintigrating around them. Upon the dials and monitors, random shapes flew up and down violently, displaying information that only made sense to a Time Lord. And they did not look good. "Yeah, it's definitely something interesting...!" Before he could even finish, the TARDIS landed in a thump that sent her passengers into the air slightly before crashing back down. Having found solid land and time, the engines finally slowed down to its regular landing rhythm and subsequently died down as though nothing unusual happened.

Groaning in pain and discomfort, Rory pulled himself to a sitting position and gently pulled Amy up with him, who looked like she just had the mother of all hangovers. After a quick check to make sure they were OK, the couple turned to the Doctor, who was surprisingly already on his feet and typing frantically into the still sparking console. The look on his face was a mix of anxiety and pure excitement as he struggled to work out what just happened. "OK, according to the readings, we've landed on a terestrial planet in the... oh..."

His human companions stared at him eagerly, waiting for a response. But he gave none other than more frantic typing, causing Amy and Rory to slowly approach him from the side, glancing at the screen as though they were peeking at the Doctor's private files. "Oh what?" Rory inquired, somewhat afraid of the answer.

"We're off course. Like, really off course..." The Doctor muttered without taking his eyes off the screen, still trying to desipher something. "Really... really off... ok whoa, that's seriously off course."

Amy squinted at the readings, which still looked like random gibberish, but tried nonetheless to make sense of them somehow. "So where are we? Are we safe?"

The Doctor paused slightly at the second question. Theoritically the answer would be yes, but for the last nine-hundred years, if there was one thing the aging Time Lord has learned is that with him, no one is ever truly safe. But that was the part of him that he didn't want to show, the part that could tear this fragile little family apart, or worse, destroy it completely. "Yeah, of course we're safe. We are on Gero IV in the twenty-fifth century. This is one of Earth's outer colony planets..." He breathed out noisily, "You two are a long way from home."

"But what caused all that crashing and burning, Doctor?" Rory chimed in, still not convinced that they were out of danger, "What caused the TARDIS to lose control like that? Was it the same thing that caused it malfunction last time or...?"

Rather strangely, the Doctor smiled and suddenly held Rory's hand like a father would to his child. Confused, Rory tried to make him let go, but that slightly mad look in the Doctor's eyes told him to hold some faith. "Rory Williams, you like football, right?" Rory nodded more vigorously than he intended. "Well then, you're about to have a hell of a time here, believe me!" With haste, he pulled the man to his feet and headed towards the door, all the while rambling slightly nervously of how wonderful Gero IV is. "You know of football nations, right? Well this is a football planet! That's right, the whole planet is football mad! And did I tell you they play the game in Zero-G? Utterly bonkers, I tell ya...!"

Amy, on the other hand, immediately sensed that something wasn't right. She might not have been with the Doctor very long, but she could tell the difference between the Doctor's regular ramblings and his 'nervous' ramblings. And at that moment, he was definitely doing the 'nervous' rambling. But knowing that nothing's ever what it seems with the Doctor, Amy gave him the benefit of the doubt and followed them out, albiet cautiously.

The door opened with a whoosh as the wind outside forced their way into the ship. Outside, the night sky cast its shadow over the landscape, which coupled with the wind kicking up the crystalline sand made the air sparkle. It was certainly an eye catching sight. But what caught Amy's eye was just how haunted the Doctor suddenly looked as he ran towards a nearby hill. Not knowing what to expect, Rory and Amy followed with haste, all the while shouting for him to slow down. Within seconds, they were far away from the TARDIS as the Doctor continued to run, all the while muttering 'no' repeatedly. The sky slowly turned a faint orange as a distant light source struggled to pierce the dense clouds above them and the Doctor came to a skidding stop on top of a hill overlooking a vast area beyond. By the time Amy and Rory finally caught up to him, panting all the while they did, they were shocked to see tears rolling down the Doctor's face. Confused, they stared out towards the source of the light, which suddenly revealed itself as a burning city, and that the clouds were in fact dense smoke and soot erupting from the fiery inferno. And as they watched the formerly majestic city burn, the Doctor could only mutter quietly to himself.

"What have they done to you...?"


End file.
